Cristina Dinu

Editorials and commentaries, translation samples Editorials Translated title of the article: ‘Curbing high-rise littering with more effective law enforcement’ Original article in Chinese: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/editorial/story- Curated translation/summary of the article: “LHZB (13 Jan, p22) and LHZB Online (13 Jan) carried an editorial on high-rise littering. MSE has decided to amend the Environmental Public Health (Amendment) Act to add a presumption clause for high-rise littering cases in HDB flats, assuming that the registered owner or tenant is the offender. The new regulations are expected to come into effect on 1 July 2023. According to the data provided by NEA, before 2019, the authorities received an average of 16,000 feedbacks about high-rise littering every year. The number increased to 22,000 in 2019, about 35,000 in 2020, and more than 32,000 in 2021. The increase rate was very fast in recent years. The increase in high-rise littering incidents in the past few years may have something to do with the pandemic and people working from home, but the trend has worsened since before the pandemic. Therefore, it is indeed necessary to increase the deterrent effect of the law. At present, the responsibility of homeowners is limited to providing the authorities with the personal information of the residents in the unit at the time of the incident and does not bear other responsibilities, which has caused difficulties in proving evidence. A common principle in criminal law is the presumption of innocence, that is, the prosecution must bear the burden of proving that the defendant committed a crime, and the defendant is not obliged to prove his guilt. The above-mentioned new regulations are just the opposite. It is very time-consuming and laborious to determine the identity of litterbugs in high-rise littering incidents. Min (SE) Grace Fu once pointed out that investigating high-rise littering cases requires a lot of resources and time, including collecting data to deploy camera locations and identifying violators. From the moment a CCTV catches a cigarette butt thrown from a high-rise building, it usually takes 10 weeks to six months for NEA to take enforcement action. In many cases, CCTVs cannot capture high-rise littering, mainly because the lenses are only aimed at the outer walls of buildings to avoid accusations of violating personal privacy. With the assistance of camera technology, although law enforcement officers can more easily determine the unit from which litter was thrown out, it is often impossible to confirm the identity of the violator. This significantly reduces the efficiency of law enforcement. In view of the fact that high-rise littering poses a great security threat to Singapore’s densely populated HDB living environment, and also poses a hidden danger to environmental hygiene, it is necessary to curb the bad behaviour of a few lawbreakers and improve law enforcement efficiency. With the new regulations, co-occupiers will have to supervise and restrict each other from high-rise littering. According to NEA, 54 per cent of the cases of high-rise littering in the past four years were related to cigarette butts. Among them, about 95 per cent of the cases were captured by the CCTVs deployed by the authorities, but it is not easy to identify the litterbugs. It is very irresponsible for smokers to smoke at home and throw their cigarette butts downstairs, and putting cigarette butts in an ashtray at home is just a matter of little effort. The new regulations should have a greater deterrent effect on smokers and reduce the time and manpower spent on law enforcement. In addition to adding the above-mentioned hypothetical provisions, it may be necessary to review the existing related penalties. Articles 336 to 338 of the Penal Code provide for the penalties for those who throw objects from high-rise buildings, including negligent and reckless acts that endanger the safety of others, causing injury or serious injury to others. The maximum penalty is a fine of $5,000 or imprisonment for two years or both. The author wrote that it was worth reviewing whether the deterrent is sufficient.” Translated title of the article: ‘Indoor formaldehyde emission should be taken seriously’ Original article in Chinese: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/editorial/story- Curated translation/summary of the article: “LHZB (6 Jan, p22) and LHZB Online (6 Jan) carried an editorial on indoor formaldehyde emissions. Local construction-related business groups have voluntarily put forward industry guidelines to monitor indoor air quality, especially formaldehyde emission concentration, which is a timely and necessary industry standard for this hazardous building and decoration material. The Alliance for Action (AfA) on Sustainable Spaces, jointly established by the Singapore Business Federation (SBF), Singapore Furniture Industries Council (SFIC), and Singapore Green Building Council (SGBC), recently called on the Government to regulate the concentration of formaldehyde released from indoor products, and formulate incentives to promote the adoption of low-emission products by enterprises, showing that the industry has already begun to notice the impact of formaldehyde on residents and indoor space users when it is used in decoration and building materials without strict regulations. These suggestions include that the industry must conduct tests on products and obtain certificates before they can be sold, and must also provide certificates of compliance with emission standards for sold products. Residents and some people in the industry still have little awareness of the hazards of formaldehyde. The AfA on Sustainable Spaces officially released the Low Formaldehyde Commitment Statement in April last year, hoping to help suppliers and industry players adopt more environmentally friendly and healthy building materials, and at the same time grasp the business opportunities of the green economy. Min (SE) Grace Fu, pointed out that the Government will seriously consider formulating regulations based on the guidelines, but the legislative work must be carefully planned, and more importantly, the inspection and law enforcement work after the regulatory regulations are formulated. If the Government can respond to the AfA and formulate industry regulations that meet international standards, it will help expand public awareness, further integrate public health, and deepen the connotation of the Singapore Green Plan 2030.” Commentaries Translated title of the article: ‘Promoting innovation and development with green financing’ Original article in Chinese: https://www.zaobao.com.sg/finance/singapore/story- Curated translation/summary of the article: “LHZB (22 Dec, p25) and LHZB Online (22 Dec) carried a commentary by Yang Zhikai, Deputy Director, Sustainable Development and Corporate Finance, Urban Solutions, Enterprise Singapore on environmental sustainability. Singapore Green Plan 2030 launched in 2021 has drawn up a national plan for the country's sustainable development and net-zero emissions. As countries strive t”o achieve a low-carbon future, all industries will also face corresponding transformation pressures. As a major hub in Asia, Singapore is well-positioned to support these sustainable development visions. The Government has launched various related initiatives, such as the Research, Innovation and Enterprise 2025 Plan, which aims to assist the development and commercialisation of innovative solutions in the fields of clean and renewable energy, circular economy and low carbon. In 2021, Enterprise Singapore launched a corporate sustainable development plan worth $180 million to help companies integrate sustainable development into business operations and strengthen their capabilities in resource optimisation and standard adoption. MAS has established a Green Finance Industry Taskforce (GFIT) to classify green projects and propose clear definitions and standards for activities related to green development. This helps to build consensus within the industry and provides transparency and confidence to green project financiers. Various Government agencies have stepped up efforts to improve corporate access to green financing. In addition to the corporate sustainable development plan, Enterprise Singapore also launched a corporate financing plan, Green Loan, in October 2021, to assist small and medium-sized enterprises to adopt green financing and develop new technologies and solutions for energy conservation and emission reduction. Since its launch, the programme has achieved good results. More than 30 small and medium-sized enterprises have received green loans of nearly $100 million, covering areas such as solar energy, energy storage, energy efficiency technology, electric vehicle technology, green maritime solutions, green building technology, and material and waste recycling.” Translated title of the article: ‘Hearing about table-cleaning robots’ Original article in Chinese:https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/views/story- Curated translation/summary of the article: “LHZB (22 Dec, p23) and LHZB Online (22 Dec) carried a commentary by Liu Jiaming, an electronic engineer, on table cleaning robots. The writer related that a colleague who is particularly interested in robots recently noticed a piece of news that relevant authorities invited bids for a "table cleaning robot" in hawker centres. He enthusiastically shared with the writer his vision for the future of hawker centres. In a certain corner of hawker centres in the future, a robot waiting for charging will detect that there is a table that needs to be cleaned. The robot will immediately dispatch to find the table through the narrow path between the tables, avoiding the crowd, and first inspect the situation of the table. If there is any crockery left by diners, the robot would take them up first, sort and put them away, and then clean up the leftovers on the table, or when the noise does not affect other diners. After that the robot would vacuum the scraps quietly into a storage bag. It would spray a cleaning and disinfecting solution, wipe the tabletop with a cloth, and then return to the cleaning place. The robot would quickly and automatically remove residues and scraps, clean and disinfect its tablecloth, and wait for the next task. The writer opined that an inventor of an intelligent table-cleaning robot would revolutionise technology and science. After a lot of hard work, Singapore finally relied on fines to make most diners take to return their trays. The cleanliness of hawker centres has always been an issue due to low salaries, and poor working conditions, which has led to a shortage of employees. After the return of the trays, the work process of cleaners should be improved a little. The writer opined that if the salary and welfare issues would also be improved, the number of employees would not be reduced and measures such as flexible part-time or hourly work would be added, maybe employees would have time to clean tabletops. However, if contractors think that the workload has improved, they will reduce employees or cut wages accordingly, then the problem of staff shortage would return to the original point, and sanitary problems such as wiping tables would resurface. The writer suggested inventing a robot that washes tablecloths for cleaners and installing a robot that automatically washes trays, chopsticks and crockery so that cleaners would only have to clean tabletops. The writer also suggested that if the mandatory tray return policy does not work, the authorities should install some CCTVs and add a panacea for fines, maybe this way Singapore can achieve the goal of improving the hygiene of public dining places. Based on the current technological developments, the writer estimates that in five years, robots will only be suitable for sharing simple and clearly defined, highly repetitive, heavy or dangerous tasks for humans, which is still far from the vision of intelligent table-cleaning robots.” Translated title of the article: ‘Use public goods to curb rising cost of living’ Original article in Chinese:https://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/views/story- Curated translation/summary of the article: “LHZB (8 Dec, p25) and LHZB Online (8 Dec) carried a commentary by Cai Yongxing, a travel consultant, on the high cost of living. In September 2022, TODAY Online conducted a survey of 1,000 young people aged between 18 and 35 and found that 52 per cent believed that the high cost of living was their main source of stress in the past three months. The survey noted that youth are most concerned about the rising costs of groceries and medical care. What is even more worrying is that 47 per cent are worried about food prices in hawker centres, coffee shops and restaurants. However, the writer questioned when dining in hawker centres has become a worry for young people. In the past, the Government used public resources to help street stallholders continue to operate in Government hawker centres in order to clean up the street landscape and sanitation conditions. Indirectly, affordable subsidised rents have contributed to the democratisation of hawker food prices. Over the past few decades, Singaporeans have gradually become accustomed to eating out. They enjoy affordable and good meals in hawker centres or coffee shops and pamper themselves at restaurants on special occasions such as birthdays or family gatherings every month. The rent for hawker operations is a large part of their costs. If the Government's positioning of hawker centres and coffee shops as public goods becomes blurred, the rent loses consideration based on public goods, and market factors stimulate the improvement of food quality and business opportunities, the rise of food prices will directly affect people's lives.” Translated title of the article: ‘LHZB Editor's Comments’ Original article in Chinese:http://www.zaobao.com.sg/forum/talk/story- Curated translation/summary of the article: “LHZB (16 Dec, p10) and LHZB Online (16 Dec) carried the forum editor’s comments on Taipei Mayor Ko Wenzhe's visit to Singapore. Mr Ko revealed on Facebook that he would come to investigate policies on bilingual education, smart cities and net zero emissions. However, he also said that it is necessary to see how hawker centres in Singapore were selected as UNESCO Intangible Cultural Heritage and to use local experience to promote Taiwan's night markets. Singapore also has a lot to learn from Taiwan in terms of food management. For example, the selection of ingredients, cooking techniques, packaging and marketing ideas, the intentions of hawkers, and even the natural atmosphere formed by night markets, are all attractive factors that make Taiwan night markets a must-see for tourists.”